Slice, Stevenson Square, Reviewed

Jonathan Schofield finds probably the best pizzas in the region

The little things in life. The details. Get these right and you're on your way. Especially with food.

"This makes the perfect Roman pizza, one with a a very thin crispy base that acts as great platform for piling the other flavours on top."

Slice has got it spot on.

People have been tweeting and gossiping about this little place on Stevenson Square for a while now.

The buzz is justified. These are the best pizzas I've eaten outside Italy. They're better than 99% of the pizzas I've eaten in the boot shaped country too.

The price is £2-£3 depending on your choice.

Slice - look at the lushness here

I had the pesto slice and the mushroom and ham slice. Both were magnificent. The generous toppings were chock with flavour, the base was exquisite. I could have eaten them twice over.

For the love of pizzas

Fellow food critic, the globe-trotting Neil Sowerby who was with me had a smoked mozzarella and mushroom slice and a Parma ham slice - top picture on this page. He was equally impressed.

The pizzas are a labour of love. And you can tell.

Liam Cassidy and Matt McGuirk the proprietors, after stints in various Manchester bars and restaurants, went to Rome to delve into the mysteries of the favourite food of the Mutant Ninja Turtles.

They served apprenticeship in the pizzerias of Emiliano Baldini and despite the present excellence of the food on offer are going back for more training this winter. They're beyond passionate about pizzas.

"We've also had a Castelli oven handmade for us by a pair of brothers in Lazio to help us get things just right," says Cassidy. "This makes the perfect Roman pizza, one with a a very thin crispy base that acts as great platform for piling the other flavours on top. It also helps with the foccacia and panninis we make."

Specially made Castelli oven

You could easily imagine a Slice in every town and city in the UK but any expansion plans might be difficult.

"We'd never sleep," says Cassidy. "The recipes for the pizza and the bread is a closely guarded secret from our training. We'd have to work all night."

Slice

Slice opens from noon to 1am Monday to Saturday. There are the pizzas, but also foccacia with fillings such as rosemary and tomatoes or for the sweet toothed, Nutella. There are various panninis on offer too. A drinks licence should arrive in the next couple of months.

But people, those pizzas. Wow. Look at them. Genius. It's the little things.

PLEASE NOTE: Venues are rated against the best examples of their kind: fine dining against the best fine dining, cafes against the best cafes. Following on from this the scores represent: 1-5 saw your leg off and eat it, 6-9 get a DVD, 10-11 if you must, 12-13 if you’re passing,14-15 worth a trip,16-17 very good, 17-18 exceptional, 19 pure quality, 20 perfect. More than 20, we get carried away.

Slice

Slice

Slice

Slice

Slice - waiting for its name but cooking up a dough storm

Like what you see? Enter your email to sign up for our newsletters which are chock-a-block with more great reviews, news, deals and savings.

Absolutely love this place, gave it my first try on Monday, after many a referral. It is great, ace selection of pizza, tasty, not stodgy, great service, friendly owners. Not yet tried the gelato, but will definitely be back... roll on the drinks licence too.

No that was Buy the slice, they never actually sold pizza by the slice but you could buy a 19" pizza which was great. Don't bother with them now as they've been taken over by someone else and use rubbish ready made bases.

Popped in today after hearing good things. I'm sorry to say I wasn't very impressed. I had a slice of the broccoli, chilli and sausage pizza which was bland and lukewarm despite having just been reheated. Maybe I chose a bad one, I can see how it should have been great as it looked wonderful! A couple of other things bugged me about the place. When I asked for a serviette the staff seemed perplexed and brought me a bundle of blue roll. Is that such an odd request? And the TV in the corner was playing some loud tinny horrible music which just made me want to hurry up and leave. I hope I've just had a bad experience, but I'm not planning on repeating it.

Sorry, we were here last night and I don't see the appeal of this place. Bland, re-heated pizza smothered with cheese and little else. TV playing Sky News so loud as to render conversation difficult, and no service to speak of. The whole experience felt like something one might put up with at an airport, but certainly not one to be willingly repeated.

hey Andy, maybe you would like to pop back in to try another slice on me (liam), we make everything from fresh every morning and the mechanisms inside our Castelli scalda oven do not reheat the pizza they cook the pizza. Everywhere in Roma use Castelli. sometimes Sky news can be a bit loud (or the music) but we will never be offended if you tell either me or anybody else to turn it down, its just we run around preparing the freshest food and dont notice how loud it is sometimes! we use the finest Mozzarella, some of which is unavailable to the finest Italian places in the north, but paying extra to import it is the benifit of seeing a smile on customers faces (who like cheese!) if you would prefer a red pizza (with no cheese) we have them everyday, or you could opt for our focaccia bread! but please next time if you are not satisfied just ask for Liam or Matt and we will be more than happy to listen to you. have a (rainy) but good night pal! Liam Cassidy

What is wrong with you people, it is pizza, you won't be having a Michelin star experience, deal with it!Having said that, I have been to Slice on three occassions in the last 2 months and I have yet to be disappointed. I now find myself recommending this place to people as often as I can. I recommend starting with a bowl of soup across the Sq at the Soup Kitchen, then pop back over for pizza or sandwich at Slice, that is a proper lunch !To date I have tried the broccolli, anchovie and chilli pizza 9/10, Focaccia, 9/10, Prociutto, mozzerella and rocket sandwich 9/10. How could this place be improved, well I would love it if they offered Italian style tapas dishes too.Give this place a go but remember you are going for a slice of pizza not lunch at The Savoy.

As an italian I can honestly say that their pizza is as good as I have tasted in any "pizza al taglio" shop back home. Good to see that with good ingredients, passion and dedication you can replicate italian food propely at an honest price. Makes me like Manchester even more!